


This Whole Town's Ringing In One More Year

by FireflysLove



Series: Maybe Baby [2]
Category: Agent Carter (Marvel Short Film), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, They're not in this fic, as in, but also the present, but their relationship is central to it, in the past, peggy is a bamf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 12:05:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2228397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflysLove/pseuds/FireflysLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the events of <i><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2111451/chapters/4605966">Snow Outside</a></i>. Probably won't make sense on its own. (Steve's a she, and married to Bucky, who didn't fall off the train).</p><p>What Peggy did after the war. </p><p>Briefly references the one shot <i>Agent Carter</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Static

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of three chapters. 
> 
> And canon does NOT apply except in the broadest sense of continuity here. Especially in this fic. Because shit happens to Peggy.

They seem to think the static stays with her all the time.

It’s always there, she knows that. Just like the picture of Steve and Bucky in her desk drawer.

But she’s always at that desk. She can’t always see the picture.

The desk is always there.

The static comes and goes.

They’re the ones that chained her to the desk.

 

* * *

 

After the Zodiac incident, she’s not sure she’s ever going to see the desk again.

She does, but not for very long. Only long enough to gather the static and take it with her.

 

* * *

 

She throws her life into SHIELD.

It’s a different kind of life than she was used to before she sat behind a desk for a year.

But it’s a good kind of life.

Bureaucracy, sure. Lots of paperwork.

But also field missions.

And those are the bread and butter of why she does what she does.

 

* * *

 

Over time, the static fades.


	2. Shit Hits The Fan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's a lady?!

In 1943, Steve left Peggy with a pile of steaming shit after she put the plane down. Not only did she leave good men behind to take care of, she left her own and Bucky’s files to deal with. Steve’s was easier, because she was always a confidential mission anyway. But Bucky Barnes is harder to deal with. He was a regular drafted soldier, but he went MIA with a confidential mission.

They end up filing the two together, in a larger file marked “Rogers-Barnes”.

 

* * *

 

Three years later, the now-cooled shit hits the fan.

A young SHIELD agent is reorganizing the files from the SSR, which is being absorbed into SHIELD as its science division. She comes across a file labelled “Rogers-Barnes”, and upon opening it, discovers two very important secrets about Captain America.

He’s a woman, and she’s married.

The first thing she does is take the file and slam it on Peggy’s desk.

“Did you know?” she asks.

Peggy slowly looks up from her typewriter. She sees the file on her desk. She sighs.

“Of course I knew. Steve and Bucky. They were unlike any other people I’ve ever met,” Peggy says wistfully.

“Were you ever going to tell anyone?” the young agent asks.

“I wasn’t planning on it. Steve asked me not to tell anyone. So I never have,” Peggy says.

“Well, I hope you’re prepared to handle this shit show, because I may have just told everyone,” the young woman smirks.

“Why would you do that?” Peggy shouts, standing, her chair falling.

“Because. Captain America was America’s golden boy. Now how are they going to react to her?”

“What is your name, Agent?”

“Lydia Deuxtetes.”

 

* * *

 

The microphones in front of Peggy aren’t anything new, not after a few years on this job. But what she’s doing now is.

“I’m sure by now you have all heard the rumors regarding the secret identity of the soldier known as Captain America,” she says.

A reporter shouts, “Steve’s a lady?”

Peggy smiles. “Yes, she was. She became my friend during the war. For obvious reasons, we had to keep her gender secret from the public.”

“Is it true she was married to Sergeant Barnes?” another reporter asks.

“Yes, she was. They were married in the autumn of 1936. Before you ask, Steve’s name was actually Stephanie Georgia Rogers Barnes. Essentially everything else you know about her is true,” Peggy replies.

“What about the allegations that you and Captain America were involved in a sexual relationship?”

Peggy bristles, “Anyone who told you that was lying. That rumor is patently false.”

They don’t need to know about the kiss. That had been during war. And it was not something Peggy would have ever actually pursued had Steve and Bucky survived. Probably.

“So did Bucky really fall off the train during the capture of Dr. Zola?” comes from the crowd.

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling. No, he didn’t. He was in the plane with Captain Rogers when it went down,” Peggy says.

“Why have you kept this a secret for three years?”

“We didn’t want to tarnish the memory of Captain America,” Peggy says.

Whatever Lydia Deuxtetes intends, Peggy will do her damndest counteract it.

 

* * *

 

(It works. Even after Peggy is gone, the legend of Captain America as a female warrior lives on. She exists beside Rosie the Riveter as a symbol of feminism.)


	3. Screams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the equivalent of Bucky's transformation into the Winter Soldier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 
> 
> Non-graphic descriptions. It's all from Peggy's point of view.

**SHIELD AGENT FILE. STATUS: CLASSIFIED.**

_Agent’s Name: Carter, Margaret Eva “Peggy”_

* * *

 

**What happened out there, Agent Deuxtetes?**

**Sir, I don’t know. One minute she was there, the next minute, she and half the squad were gone.**

**Can you recount the events of February 21, 1950 for us?**

* * *

 

It’s a standard field mission. A mysterious vial of blue liquid appeared in the wilderness of Colorado. Peggy assembles a small team to go collect it.

She herself hasn’t been out in the field for nearly six months, so she tags along.

It’s late February, and the Rocky Mountains are still in deep snow where they’re going. Peggy doesn’t think there’s anything particularly different about this mission in particular.

They enter a cave and pause to regroup.

“All right. Deuxtetes, James, Hollis. Go set up a perimeter. Barrow, Johnson, get the containment ready. Kilpatrick, you’re with me,” Peggy orders.

She extracts a long set of tongs from her bag and approaches the glowing vial of violently blue liquid. She is about to grab it when the bag descends over her head.

 

* * *

 

_Status: Unknown, Presumed Dead_

 

* * *

 

Peggy isn’t sure how long she is out. When she wakes up, she’s been strapped to a table. The ceiling is mirrored.

The first thing she thinks is _What happened now?_

The last thing she thinks is _I didn’t even tell Howard I was going on this mission._

* * *

 

_Last Seen: Rocky Mountains, Colorado_

* * *

 

Peggy wakes again. This time, she’s in pain. Such pain.

“Ah, Agent Carter, you are awake. How are you feeling?” a voice says from her left. She blinks her eyes open. Arnim Zola stands over her.

“Like fucking shit,” Peggy hisses.

“That will wear off in time, I’m told,” Zola says cheerfully.

“What did you do to me?” Peggy shouts.

“We have perfected the serum. Ironically, it is what drew you here,” Zola says.

“Why?” Peggy asks.

“Perfection,” Zola says.

“Make it stop,” Peggy whimpers.

“Agent Carter… the procedure has already started. You are to be the new fist of HYDRA!”

Peggy’s eyes close.

 

* * *

 

_Mission Status: Incomplete_

 

* * *

 

When they open again, she feels like she’s floating. She doesn’t know exactly what’s happening, but at least her hands aren’t bound anymore. She holds them up to look at them.

They don’t match.

She screams.

 

* * *

 

_Casualties: Seven agents deployed, two returned._

* * *

 

She wakes up.

She is sitting in a chair in a room alone.

She is confused.

No one has told her what she is to do.

 

* * *

 

_Further Action Recommended: None._

* * *

 

Peggy has a last moment of awareness as she sees her face reflected in the window of the pod. She reaches out for help, but none comes.

She is alone.

 

* * *

 

_Date File Closed: March 31, 1951_

 

* * *

 

**_Later:_ **

The Winter Soldier stands on a bluff, hair flying about her face.

A car comes around the corner.

Her mission.

 

* * *

 

_Obituary: Howard and Maria Stark were killed in a tragic car accident on the evening of December 17, 1991. They leave behind a son, Anthony “Tony”, aged 20._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I'm sorry. 
> 
> And even better, you won't see Peggy again until after the full length sequel to Snow Outside. 
> 
> Next up: An Avengers rewrite.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: [Firefly's Love](http://fireflyslove.tumblr.com). Lots of Stucky. It is multifandom.


End file.
